Carpet @ Bar Blu, Rhyl

Bands must look at the calendar and think that the gig they booked with all that enthusiasm for a Wednesday night in Rhyl in November wasn’t perhaps such a good idea. So they’ll call with an excuse from The Caves book of excuses; page 34 says: ‘The drummer’s wife has given birth to an okapi so we can’t make it.’

Defenestration and Mendes both cried wolf and left Carpet to fill the void.
Y’see, when I were a lad a gig was a gig and just to find anywhere to play was a feat in itself amidst a quagmire of poodle rock shite pub rock bands playing awful Led Zep and Hendrix covers. Nowadays bands even as extreme as Gape, with their brain rattling distortion can pick ‘n’ choose where they play and when to.

I’ve been playing Carpet on my show these last couple of weeks and they’re ace! It’s a demo they did a couple of years ago and I accidentally unearthed it. They only played one song off it tonight as musically this is a band that constantly moves, its just a pity they don’t seem to do it out of Rhyl that often.
From the excellent breakneck grunge punk of 3 years ago (see reviews links below) to the more mature mellower (but still in yer face) excellent grunge punk of today, Carpet deliver the goods with precise execution. I’m happy to stand there and simply marvel at the astounding quality of musicianship as I sup my umpteenth pint of lager.
Someone said on my message board yesterday how they enjoyed the set, particularly the experimental stuff, but he suggested they’ll always be tarred with americanisms if he sings in an american accent. Funny innit? LA’s The Killers sing with an English accent! The experimental stuff was probably due to the request to play for longer due to no other bands on the bill, but it gave them a chance to stretch their fretboard fingers.
Even MWJ ventured from his Conwy provincal hideaway for a night out and he suspiciously disappeared with Andy Fatman for an hour, for them both to re-emerge with their trousers on inside out… hmmm…